From boyhood on, his memories are of standing under blue skies, the crack of the bat, and loving a sport.

“We would always play baseball” Pendergraft said.

For which Pendergraft showed a talent, particularly for pitching. But by the time he was in high school…

KSDK: “How many pitches do you think you threw in a game, what’s the most?”

Pendergraft: “The most pitches I’ve probably thrown in game is probably close to 150.”

Then one day it all changed.

“It was the 74th pitch I believe”, Pendergraft said. “Everybody on the field heard it snap.”

“It” was the ligament in his pitching arm, and it was the beginning of the end of Dustin’s baseball career.

Experts say it’s an epidemic. Young talented pitchers being pushed at earlier and earlier ages, both by themselves, their coaches, and even their parents to win just one more game. But the result is often permanent damage.

Which brings us to an irony: You see at the college level and Major League Baseball, keeping “pitch counts” are ‘de rigeur’ for protecting pitchers, when it comes to Missouri high school and junior high school athletes, they’re not.

Instead, these student-athletes are limited on the amount of INNINGS they can pitch, no more than 10 in one game.

Dr. Dugas’ reaction: “That would border on child abuse.”

We also asked Dustin for his thoughts on the rule.

“Absolutely ridiculous” he said, “especially for kids at such a young age.”

So we asked the Missouri State High School Activities Association why not pitch counts? Assistant Executive Director Tim Thompson says they’ve been considering it.

“We all want to protect student athletes. We do not want 13-year-olds having arm surgery,” Thompson said.

But, the process has been on-going for two years and there have been delays.

“When we do make a rule change like this” Thompson told NewsChannel 5. “It would come from the Sports Medicine and or the Baseball Advisory Committee and neither one of those committees have come forward with an exact plan.”

So, Dr. Dugas and others say that in the meantime parents have to step up to the plate and count and limit the pitches thrown by young athletes.

In fact, below KSDK has provided a link to ASMI’s recommendations for child pitchers. In addition, the founder of ASMI has developed an app for your smart phone to help parents keep track of their kid’s pitches and a link to that is also below.